The present invention relates to a supporting structure, of the sledge type, making it possible to convey and to place traction batteries in reference position relative to a housing formed in a vehicle with an electric traction system in which the latter are designed to be installed.
The invention finds a particularly advantageous, but not exclusive, application in the field of exchange of traction batteries of vehicles provided with removable traction batteries in battery-exchange stations.
The invention also finds application in the field of installation of a traction battery in a vehicle provided with an electric traction system in a factory for assembling such vehicles but also in any location in which the battery could be conveyed outside the vehicle as in the after-sales network etc.
Specifically, although the energy density that can be stored in traction batteries has progressed greatly, vehicles with fully electric traction systems still have however a range deficit relative to a vehicle with a heat traction system.
One solution for allowing these vehicles with fully electric traction systems to achieve services equivalent to those of vehicles provided with a heat traction system lies in the deployment of automated battery-exchange stations, of the type of that disclosed in document U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,606. In these stations, a user may exchange the discharged traction battery of his vehicle with a recharged battery in a particularly short time and in great comfort by reason of the automation of the exchange.
The stations that are envisaged must be able to exchange batteries, the weight of which is high in order to increase the range between two battery exchanges and the shape and volume of which may differ from one model of vehicle to another. This limits the multiplication of battery-exchange stations in order to maintain an acceptable cost of battery-exchange infrastructure. It is therefore understandable that it is necessary to develop a universal station that makes it possible to reduce the cost of covering the exchange-station territory.